WooCommerce Sample Products Import Print Catalogue

Applies to Cmsmart Product Designer (NBDesigner) 2.17.0 · Updated October 2026. Covers the Sample Data Import screen under Cmsmart, Import Products, and the 23 sample products it adds to a WooCommerce store.

In short

  • A WooCommerce sample products import lets a new print store open with 23 design-ready products instead of an empty catalogue, so the first order can happen the same day.
  • Under Cmsmart, Import Products you pick from business cards, posters, stickers, T-shirts, mugs and more; the import runs in the background and can retry a failed item.
  • You then rename, re-price and re-photograph the samples into your own range — or ask Cmsmart to do that setup for you as custom development.

What's the real cost of listing your first print product by hand?

Cmsmart Product Designer needs print areas, bleed, safe zones and often a price matrix before a single product can go live, and building all of that from a blank screen is where most new print stores lose their first week. A sample import gives you a working example to copy instead of a blank screen.

Four things slow a print shop's first week in WooCommerce:

  • Every print area has to be defined by hand — sides, bleed, safe zone and overlay, product by product, before anyone can design anything.
  • A price matrix is hard to build without seeing one. Paper, weight, sides and quantity breaks are easy to describe and awkward to configure the first time.
  • Without a finished example, done is a guess. You cannot tell a template looks right, or a print option set behaves correctly, until you have one to compare against.
  • The store stays closed, or looks empty, while the catalogue is built. Cost of the status quo, with your own numbers: days spent configuring the first products, multiplied by what a day of not selling costs you.

What could your catalogue look like by lunchtime?

Instead of a blank product list, a new Cmsmart store can open with a business card that already has 20 starter templates ready to open and several products with working print option price rules, so the first thing a visitor sees is a store that already knows how to sell, not one you are still building.

Example scenario. A new print shop installs Cmsmart Product Designer on a quiet afternoon. The owner opens Import Products, selects the business card, poster, sticker and T-shirt samples, and starts the import. While it runs in the background they set up a payment method and write the About page. By the time they come back, the business card sits on the designer with its starter templates, the poster and sticker already carry a price matrix, and the storefront is no longer an empty shelf — it is ready for a visitor to design, see a price, and check out.

None of that replaces knowing your own paper stock, your own turnaround times or your own brand. It buys you a working store to learn on while you build the one you will actually sell from. If your catalogue is unusual enough that samples will not get you there, talk to an ecommerce expert about a done-for-you setup instead.

How does Cmsmart's sample import build a design-ready catalogue?

Cmsmart Product Designer's Import Products screen loads 23 products as real WooCommerce products with the online designer already switched on; some bring templates, some bring print option price rules, and the import keeps running in the background so a slow connection or a closed tab never loses your progress.

Four building blocks make up the import, all in the plugin today:

  • The Import Products screen. Under Cmsmart, Import Products, each of the 23 sample cards — business card, poster, banner, flyer, menu, mug, door hanger, invitation, phone case, cap, envelope, label, sticker, bag, pillow, catalog, tag, badge and T-shirt variants — shows a checkbox and, where it applies, a badge for Templates or Printing options.
  • Designer settings on every sample. Each imported product arrives as a normal WooCommerce product with Cmsmart's online designer already enabled, so you are not switching it on by hand for 23 products.
  • Templates on Business Card. Of the 23 samples, Business Card is the one badged Templates on the import screen — it brings 20 starter templates already attached, ready to open on the canvas.
  • Print option price rules on six samples. Six of the sample products carry a Printing options badge and import with a working price matrix or quantity-break rule set, not just a flat price.
WooCommerce sample products import print screen in Cmsmart listing 23 sample products; Business Card carries a Templates badge and several cards carry a Printing options badge
Cmsmart Product Designer 2.17.0, WP Admin > Cmsmart > Import Products: 23 sample products, each with Select All or its own checkbox. Business Card is the only card badged Templates; Sticker, T-shirt with print option, Business Card – with print option, Poster – with print option and the two Business Cards – Advanced Options cards are badged Printing options.

Cmsmart insight: don't assume every sample behaves the same way. Only Business Card ships with attached templates, and only six of the 23 samples carry a printing-options price rule — the rest import as a plain designer-enabled product with no price matrix. Check the badge on each card before you promise a customer that pricing is already built in.

Once the import finishes, the new products will show up like any other WooCommerce product, inside this same Manager Products view.

Cmsmart Manager Products screen showing 34 designer products, 29 templates across the page and 20 products shown of 34 in total
Cmsmart Product Designer 2.17.0, WP Admin > Cmsmart > Products: this is where designer-enabled products — including whatever you tick on the Import Products screen — land, with their category, base price, designer status and template count.

Turning 23 samples into a real, branded catalogue — new product types beyond the sample set, or a bulk import of a catalogue you already run elsewhere — is where this stops being a checkbox and starts being a project; see going further with custom development below.

What's the business value of starting from 23 ready-made products?

Starting a WooCommerce print store from 23 designer-enabled samples turns catalogue setup from a multi-day build into a background task you kick off once, so the business value shows up as days saved before the first sale rather than a feature you have to explain to a customer.

BenefitHow it shows up in your businessKPI to track
Faster time to first saleThe store can take its first designed order the same day the plugin is activated, instead of after a week of print-area and price setupDays from plugin install to first paid order
Lower setup costYour team or agency spends zero hours building the first price matrix or print area from a blank productHours of admin or developer time spent on initial catalogue setup
Tested pricing patterns to copyThe six samples with print options show a working price matrix and quantity-break layout you can copy into your own productsPricing corrections or quote errors reported per month
A store that is never emptyVisitors see a working, orderable catalogue while you build out your real product range behind itVisits to the shop page that result in a started design

Rough ROI, with your own numbers: (days of setup time saved by starting from samples) × (your average revenue per trading day once the store is live) = the value of opening sooner. Put your own trading-day revenue and your own estimate of setup days saved into that formula to see what a faster launch is worth for your store.

How do you set up a WooCommerce sample products import print catalogue?

You set up the sample import from Cmsmart, Import Products in wp-admin: pick the samples you want, start the import, and let it run in the background while you configure payments; then open one imported product on the storefront to confirm the designer, templates and price rules came through correctly.

  1. Install and activate Cmsmart Product Designer and confirm your licence under Cmsmart, License.
  2. Open Cmsmart, Import Products in wp-admin.
  3. Tick Select All, or choose only the samples you need (business cards, posters, stickers, T-shirts, mugs and more); cards badged Templates or Printing options bring those extras with them.
  4. Click Import. The import runs in the background and survives closing the tab.
  5. If an item fails, retry it from the same screen; a retry will not create a duplicate product.
  6. Open Cmsmart, Products (Manager Products) to confirm the new products are listed, enabled and active.
  7. Open one imported product on your storefront and press Start design to confirm the online designer, and any templates or print options, load correctly.
  8. Add a sample design to the cart and step through checkout — stop before payment — to confirm the design preview and chosen print options carry through to the order review.
  9. Rename, re-price and re-photograph each sample so it becomes a real listing in your catalogue, not a demo product left live on your store.

Steps 1 and 3 touch settings covered in more depth in the Series A installation walkthrough, and step 3's print option badges are explained further in how to build a price matrix with the printing options attribute. Once a real buyer reaches step 8, Cmsmart's print-ready PDF that matches the order (2.17) renders in the background as soon as they click Process, so the file your prepress team opens already matches the size and options the buyer chose.

WooCommerce storefront product page for an imported sample with a Start and upload design button above Add to cart
Cmsmart Product Designer 2.17.0, storefront: an imported sample product page with its "Start and upload design" button above Add to cart.
Cmsmart design chooser dialog offering Upload a full design or Design here online
Cmsmart Product Designer 2.17.0: the chooser a buyer sees after clicking Start design — upload a finished file, or design online from a template.
Cmsmart online designer open on a sample product with the Templates panel showing thumbnails and one template applied to the canvas
Cmsmart Product Designer 2.17.0, online designer: the Templates panel (left) lists the starter designs available on this product, with one already placed on the canvas.
WooCommerce cart line item showing the customer's design preview, product name, price and an Edit design link
Cmsmart Product Designer 2.17.0, cart: the design preview, price and an "Edit design" link travel with the line item after checkout step 8 above.
Mobile product page for an imported sample product with the design button above Add to cart
Cmsmart Product Designer 2.17.0, mobile (390px): the same imported sample product, confirming the design button still sits above Add to cart on a phone.
Video thumbnail: How to download Cmsmart Product Designer and kick-start your WooCommerce store fast
Video: How to download Cmsmart Product Designer and kick-start your store fast (Cmsmart on YouTube).

Cmsmart insight: WooCommerce's own built-in sample data import is a different tool for a different job — it loads plain demo products (name, price, a stock photo) with no design tool, templates or print options, as WooCommerce's own documentation describes it. Cmsmart's Import Products screen is built specifically to bring the online designer, templates and price rules along with the product, which is the part a print or personalisation store actually needs filled in.

Going further with custom development: what if the 23 samples aren't your catalogue?

When your real catalogue is bigger, odder or already lives in a spreadsheet or another platform, Cmsmart's product designer customization team builds the import for you: mapping your products into Cmsmart's designer settings, templates and price rules instead of the 23 fixed samples.

  • Bulk-import your own catalogue. WooCommerce's own CSV tool moves standard product data — names, prices, stock, categories and images — but neither it nor the Cmsmart samples will map a spreadsheet of hundreds of SKUs into print areas, templates and price matrices on their own; Cmsmart builds that mapping as a custom job.
  • A done-for-you print shop setup. Cmsmart's team imports, renames, re-prices and re-photographs a starting catalogue for you, so you open with a finished store instead of a renamed sample set.
  • A pricing engine beyond the six sample sets. Customer-group pricing, an ERP-fed price list, or sheet-yield and imposition calculators for a press you already run — built as custom development on top of Cmsmart's price-rule engine.
  • A multi-store or multi-branch rollout. One tested, branded catalogue copied out to several stores or franchise locations instead of configuring each one from zero.

Get my catalogue built for me

Building a print catalogue by hand vs. the Cmsmart sample data import
Building it by handCmsmart sample data import
Starting pointAn empty WooCommerce product list23 pre-configured sample products: business cards, posters, stickers, T-shirts, mugs and more
Design templatesYou design and attach every template yourselfShips with starter templates already attached to Business Card (20 templates)
Print option price rulesBuilt field by field, matrix cell by matrix cell, for every productSix of the samples bring a price matrix or quantity-break rule set ready to re-price
Time to a first orderDays of trial and error before the first design loads correctlyMinutes to import; the same day to rename, re-price and start selling
Your own full catalogueStill needs building either wayPlugin gives 23 samples to start from; a bulk import of your real catalogue is custom development

Why work with Cmsmart to build your print catalogue?

Cmsmart has been building WooCommerce and web-to-print stores as a division of Netbase JSC since 2012, with thousands of client projects and live stores behind Cmsmart Product Designer, which is also what backs the sample import and every custom catalogue project the team takes on.

Cmsmart is a web-to-print and ecommerce solutions division of Netbase JSC, building on WooCommerce since 2012. Figures as published by Cmsmart: 6,300+ client projects, 4,600+ projects delivered, 1,800+ live stores online now, and clients in 80+ countries. Cmsmart Product Designer (the plugin behind both the samples and the designer in the screenshots above) is rated 4.2 on Trustpilot (404 reviews).

One long-time user, reviewing the plugin on Trustpilot: "We have had the NB Designer plugin installed for three years and have experienced absolutely no problems during that time. It is wonderful to see their commitment to continuous development, with new features being added frequently to keep the software current and highly capable." — Web Developer, United Kingdom, Trustpilot, September 2026.

See how Cmsmart scopes and delivers larger catalogue and storefront projects on Cmsmart ecommerce projects, browse the plugin itself on its WooCommerce product designer plugin page, or read the module in full on the Sample Data Import product page.

Frequently asked questions

How do I set up a print store quickly on WooCommerce?

Install Cmsmart Product Designer (formerly NBDesigner), activate your licence, then open Cmsmart, Import Products and select the sample products you want. The import runs in the background; once it finishes you rename, re-price and re-photograph the samples into your own catalogue.

Which sample products are included in the import?

23 products: business cards, posters, banners, flyers, menus, mugs, door hangers, invitations, phone cases, caps, envelopes, labels, stickers, bags, pillows, catalogs, tags, badges and T-shirt variants. Business Card is the only one that imports with attached templates; six of the 23 carry a printing-options price rule.

Can I delete the sample products later?

Yes. Once imported they are normal WooCommerce products, so you can edit, rename or delete them like any other product in Manager Products.

Do the sample products include print pricing and templates?

Not all of them. Of the 23 samples, Business Card is the one badged Templates on the Import Products screen, and six samples are badged Printing options and bring a price matrix or quantity-break rule set. The rest import as a plain designer-enabled product with no price rule attached.

Can Cmsmart set up my store for me instead of importing samples myself?

Yes, as custom development: Cmsmart's team can import, rename, re-price and re-photograph a starting catalogue for you, or build a bulk import that maps your existing product list into Cmsmart's designer settings and price rules.